Rooting Path · Old Testament Survey · Lesson 6 of 7 · A Divided Kingdom, the Prophets’ Call, and Exile · about 20 min
1 Kings 12 to the end of 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles 10–36; most of the prophets belong here: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, and many of the minor prophets from Hosea on. On the timeline these are three eras: ‘The Divided Kingdom’ (Elijah on Mount Carmel, Jonah sent to Nineveh, the northern kingdom falling to Assyria), ‘Judah Alone’ (Hezekiah and the Assyrian army, Josiah’s reform, the fall of Jerusalem) and ‘The Exile’ (Daniel, Ezekiel, until Cyrus’s decree). One kingdom becomes two, and both fall; all along, prophets rise up one after another to speak.
After the northern kingdom fell, the text looks back and sums it up:
13Yet the LORD testified to Israel and to Judah, by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” 14Notwithstanding, they would not listen, but hardened their neck like the neck of their fathers who didn’t believe in the LORD their God.
2 Kgs 17:13–14 · WEB
With the southern kingdom also about to fall, God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah:
31“Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, 32not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which covenant of mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says the LORD. 33“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says the LORD: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:31–33 · WEB
In Isaiah there is a suffering servant:
5But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isa 53:5–6 · WEB
At the end of Lesson 4, Solomon’s heart turned from God in his old age, and the throne that was to last ‘forever’ was heading for trouble. The last lesson paused to read the poetry and wisdom books; this lesson returns to the story, and the trouble comes.
After Solomon died, his son Rehoboam refused to lighten the people’s burden; ten tribes left the house of David and made Jeroboam “king over all Israel. There was no one who followed David’s house, except for the tribe of Judah only” (1 Kgs 12:20). From then on, the north was called Israel and the south Judah. Afraid the people would go up to Jerusalem, Jeroboam made two golden calves and said to the people: “behold your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (1 Kgs 12:28). The words from the wilderness in Lesson 3 have come back.
Kings gives every king a one-line verdict. Almost every king of the north abandoned God. The south had good kings and bad: Hezekiah “trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel” (2 Kgs 18:5), and Josiah “turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might” (2 Kgs 23:25); but Manasseh “did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight” (2 Kgs 21:2). A good king brought a season of revival, and the next king turned back again.
God did not leave them to it. “the LORD testified to Israel and to Judah, by every prophet and every seer.” (2 Kgs 17:13) The prophets did not only speak about the future; much more, they spoke for God to the people in front of them: come back. On Mount Carmel Elijah asked the people: “How long will you waver between the two sides?” (1 Kgs 18:21). Jeremiah called out for God: “Return, you backsliding Israel” (Jer 3:12). God even sent Jonah to the great foreign city of Nineveh, and at the end said to Jonah: “Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city” (Jonah 4:11).
But the people “would not listen, but hardened their neck.” (2 Kgs 17:14) The north fell first: the king of Assyria “took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria” (2 Kgs 17:6). The south lasted a while longer, until Babylon came: “He burned the LORD’s house, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem” (2 Kgs 25:9), and “So Judah was carried away captive out of his land” (2 Kgs 25:21). The land lost, the king gone, the temple burned—the promise of Lesson 2 and the covenant with David in Lesson 4 seemed to have come to nothing.
Yet the same prophets also spoke of hope in the midst of judgment. Jeremiah said God would “make a new covenant” (Jer 31:31): not like the covenant made at the exodus, which the people broke; this time, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart.” (Jer 31:33) In the land of exile Ezekiel heard God say: “I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you” (Ezek 36:26). The problem was not only the enemy outside but the human heart; God promised to change the heart himself.
Isaiah also speaks of a ‘servant of the LORD’. He “was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease” (Isa 53:3); “he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities,” (Isa 53:5) and “the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53:6) All through the Old Testament, cattle and sheep were offered on the altar; here, the one who bears the sins of all is a ‘he’. Who is he? Isaiah does not give a name here.
The exiles settled down in Babylon. Jeremiah had already written to them: “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you… in causing you to return to this place” (Jer 29:10). Next lesson: they come back, and then the waiting begins.
On the night he was betrayed, Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples, and after supper he took the cup and said: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20). The ‘days to come’ that Jeremiah spoke of had arrived.
The one Isaiah did not name, the New Testament names. An Ethiopian eunuch was sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. As a lamb before his shearer is silent” (Acts 8:32). He asked Philip: “Who is the prophet talking about?” (Acts 8:34) “Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus” (Acts 8:35). Peter quotes the same passage: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree… You were healed by his wounds” (1 Pet 2:24).
Open the ‘Divided Kingdom’, ‘Judah Alone’ and ‘Exile’ sections of the timeline and click through each event in order. Write two things: how did the northern and southern kingdoms each come to an end? In these three eras, whom did God send to speak, and what did they say?
For reference: the north fell to Assyria—Samaria was taken and the people carried off to Assyria; the south fell to Babylon—the temple was burned and the people carried off to Babylon. Those God sent: Elijah asked how long the people would waver between two sides; Jonah was sent to Nineveh, and God cared for that great foreign city; Isaiah stood with Hezekiah against the Assyrian army and also spoke of the suffering servant; Jeremiah urged the people to turn back, and also promised a new covenant and a return after seventy years; Daniel and Ezekiel still spoke for God in the land of exile.
I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart.
Jer 31:33 · WEB
This week read 1 Kings 18 (Elijah on Mount Carmel), or read the whole book of Jonah in one sitting (four chapters). Afterward write one sentence: what kind of God is God here?
Just this one thing. When you do it, tap that day below; if you don’t, that’s all right—try again next week.
Good. Tap each day you do it this week:
Putting down roots is not something you do alone. Find a brother or sister you trust (ideally of the same sex) and talk this question over this week:
Elijah asked the people: “How long will you waver between the two sides?” (1 Kgs 18:21) In what are you still wavering between two sides?